NB: In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the letter is presented here.
The first matter of importance to address in J. E. Rehder's paper is the structure and content of his title: ``Use of Preheated Air in Primitive Furnaces.'' We have purposefully used a different title in our response precisely because a major thrust of our research has been that the conceptualization of primitive iron smelting, when applied to Africa, betrays a hierarchical ordering of African technology vis-à-vis the Western world that consigns the African to the category of less sophisticated and technologically backward, or ``primitive.'' The implications of our research challenge and reject the legitimacy of the concept and all of its attendant historical implications. Consistent with our historical and scientific perspectives, we offer a different title in our comments, for we feel the archaeological evidence and experimental/observational evidence point convincingly to a technological process of great antiquity that is hardly ``primitive,'' but relatively and comparatively sophisticated and complex. As Rehder points out, we do not speculate that preheating took place in African antiquity. We have material and comparative evidence that argues that it was an ancient innovation in Africa.